Partisan lines are being drawn over housing legislation pending at Maryland’s State Capitol.
The proposal would require landlords, before selling their properties, to give renters the first “right of refusal” to purchase the property.
In Hagerstown, renter Jordan Rawlings likes the idea. “Why would you not sell to the person already renting?” Rawlings said. “If the tenant wants to buy it, cool. Give it to them. That way they won’t have to move. They won’t have to up and change their lives.”
But Hagerstown real estate agent Mary Llewellyn says the government should have no role deciding the market for home sales. “To come in and dictate what we have to do with property we own? No,” Llewellyn said.
Real estate brokers see a loss of sales commissions from a narrower market. They say the proposed law would impair efforts to convert single-family dwellings to multi-family at a time of a housing shortage.
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